Cost of construction of bridge to Crimea estimated at $8 billion

MOSCOW, June 5. /ITAR-TASS/. The Avtodor state-run road construction company recommended, as the most promising project for a bridge to Crimea, construction of combined two bridges for cars and trains, 6.1 km and 1.4 km long, between Tuzla Island and the costs of the Kerch Strait, the head of the board of the company, Sergei Kelbakh, told an interdepartmental working group meeting, discussing the project.

The Russian Transport Ministry is in charge of construction of a transport link to Crimea.

The cost of construction of a combined auto and railway bridge across the Kerch Strait with roads to it (25.8 km and 83 km, respectively) is estimated at 283.2 billion rbls ($8.3 billion), with 149.8 billion rubles ($4.4 billion) of the sum for the bridge structure. The bridge will be built in three years and six months.

Avtodor has considered 74 various designs, including combined with a railroad bridge or a tunnel under the strait and two separate bridges, with the cost varying up to 349 billion rubles (over $10 billion).